Pitching wedges used to be 50 degrees and today some are as low as 44 degrees.
Iron lofts have certainly got way stronger, that’s for sure. And set composition has changed too, especially at initial purchase.
My recollection is that from the 1970’s onwards, PW’s were more like 52* although in comparison to 50* that’s splitting hairs a bit.
But some things are different though with clubs of this sort of loft, the role they play and that PW and SW’s usually came as part of a ‘set’, normally 3-PW or 3-SW or 2-PW. Sometimes woods, sometimes 1-2-3-4 or 1-3-4-5 or 1-3-5, came with the ‘set’ as well.
Worth pointing out that yee olde 52*-ish blade type PW’s usually had almost no bounce and often had a very narrow width flange, ideal for nipping shots of very tight lies, which back in yonder days were much more common than nowadays - they were thus quite different to a modern day more utilitarian gap wedge of the same loft.
As to SW’s back in yonder days they were usually 56* or thereabouts, generally had big, wide flanges with lots of bounce, so they were fine for bunkers and longer rough - skilled folks could of course do more with them.
As to 60*/LW’s, I don’t recall seeing any available until about 1986 (Ram-TWatson and Ping Eye2) although there may have been others before that or maybe just ones with more loft but without the loft being written on them.
As an aside, Seve apparently never used a 60*/LW, sticking with a 56*.
Good point about Tiger using relatively ‘weak’ lofts in his irons.
Atb